Volume III Buddhist Asia

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Volume III Buddhist Asia

Edited by: Christoph Kleine , Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz and Hubert Seiwert

Part of the multi-volume work

Global Secularity. A Sourcebook

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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This volume seeks to chart and elucidate the diverse relationships between the religious and secular spheres in regions of Asia that were significantly influenced – sometimes even dominated – by Buddhist discourses, ideas, and institutions. These regions include South Asia (India, Sri Lanka), East and Southeast Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam), Inner Asia (Buryatia, Mongolia, Tibet), and the Himalayan region (Bhutan). These regions were connected by communicative networks long before the global modern age. They constituted an intricately entangled discursive sphere, shaped by the cross-regional spread of concepts and ideas from Buddhism and, in East Asia, Confucianism. The volume sheds light on the prehistory and development of culturally specific forms of secularity, and related concepts, in Asia. It comprises a wide range of texts spanning approximately 2000 years; in many cases this is the first time that they have been presented in English. The texts here are not merely reproduced, but are also introduced and contextualized. Through these materials, the volume highlights the fact that distinctions akin to those between the ‘religious’ and the ‘secular’ were already prevalent in premodern Asia, laying the groundwork for the various forms of secularity which took shape in the modern period.

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Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Contents Open Access Download PDF	V
Instructions for Use Open Access Download PDF	XI
About the Editors Open Access Download PDF	XIII
Secularity in South Asia, East Asia, Inner Asia and the Himalayan Region: Introduction Christoph Kleine, Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz and Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	1
South Asia
Buddhist India & Sri Lanka
1 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of Ambattha (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	35
2 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of the Lion’s Roar of a Wheel-Turning Monarch (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	38
3 King Kassapa V: Anurādhapura Slab Inscription (919 CE) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	42
4 Jayabāhu Dharmakīrti: Compendium of the Buddhist Lineages (14th or 15th Century) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	49
5 Anāgatavaṃsa (Deśanā): The Chronicle of the Future (date uncertain, before 14th Century) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	53
6 Anāgatavaṃsa (Deśanā): Exposition of the Chronicle of the Future (ca. 14th Century) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	58
7 The Dīgha Nikāya: The Discourse of the Lion’s Roar of a Wheel-Turning Monarch (ca. 5th–1st Century BCE) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	62
8 D. C. Wijewardena: The Revolt in the Temple (1953) Sven Bretfeld Open Access Download PDF	70
East Asia
China
9 Mozi: Defending the Belief in the Existence of Gods and Spirits (ca. 5th Century BCE) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	99
10 Xunzi: Rational Interpretation of Nature and the Rejection of the Belief in Spirits (ca. 3rd Century BCE) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	103
11 The Controversy Over the Relationship Between Buddhism and the State in the Fourth Century (4th Century) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	109
12 The Sacred and the Secular in a Medieval Chinese Buddhist Scripture – The Sūtra on the Analogy of the Physician (ca. 1000 CE) C. Pierce Salguero Open Access Download PDF	115
13 Han Yu: Critique of Buddhism (819 CE) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	119
14 Religion in the Law Codes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1552) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	123
15 Li Fu: The Shortcomings of Teachings Dealing with Transcendent Matters (1740) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	128
16 Peng Guangyu: Confucianism is Not a Religion (1893) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	134
17 Kang Youwei: Proposal to Establish Confucianism as the State Religion (1898) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	144
18 Chen Duxiu: On the Question of a Confucian State Religion (1917) Yee Lak Elliot Lee Open Access Download PDF	156
19 Mao Zedong: Overthrowing Religious Authority (1927) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	163
20 The Chinese Communist Party’s View on Religion (1982) Hubert Seiwert Open Access Download PDF	169
Vietnam
21 Lê Quý Đôn: Categorised Discourse from the Palace Library (1773) Yasmin Koppen Open Access Download PDF	183
Korea
22 Ch’oe Han’gi: Rectification of the Teachings and Doctrines of the World According to Heaven and Man (1833) Marion Eggert Open Access Download PDF	195
Japan
23 Jōkei: The Kōfukuji Petition (1205) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	203
24 Ji’en: Notes on Foolish Views (ca. 1220) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	207
25 Clergy of the Enryakuji: Statement by the Great Assembly [of Monks] of the Enryakuji – Notes on Stopping the [Movement of the] Single-Minded and Exclusive Practice [of Buddha- Recollection] (1224) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	213
26 Nichiren: On the Four Stages of Faith and the Five Stages of Practice (1277) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	217
27 Nichiren: On the Receiving of the Three Great Secret Laws (1281) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	221
28 Zonkaku: On Destroying the False and Revealing the Correct (1344) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	224
29 Musō Soseki: Dialogues in a Dream (1344) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	227
30 Anonymous: Tale of the Heike (ca. 1371) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	235
31 Rennyo: Letters of Saint Rennyo (1474/75/76) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	240
32 Luís Fróis: Of the Conversion of Dōsan (1585) Katja Triplett Open Access Download PDF	245
33 Anonymous: Decree on Banishing Christian Missionaries (1587) Katja Triplett Open Access Download PDF	250
34 Ishin Sūden: Statement on the Expulsion of the Missionaries (1614) Katja Triplett Open Access Download PDF	252
35 Shingyō: Mountains, Seas and Villages (1825) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	257
36 Shimaji Mokurai: The Source of Religion (1872) Hans Martin Krämer Open Access Download PDF	261
37 Fukuda Gidō: Discussing the Primacy of the Ruler’s Law in the True School [of Pure Land Buddhism] (1877) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	268
38 Hakoya Tokuryō: On the Doctrine of Buddha Dharma and Ruler’s Law Being Like Wheels and Wings (1887) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	275
39 Suzuki Daisetsu Teitarō: A New Theory of Religion (Shin-shūkyō ron新宗教論, 1896) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	285
40 The Treatment of ‘Religion’ in the Constitutions of Japan (1889, 1947) and Proposed Revisions to Articles 20 and 89 of the Postwar Constitution by the Liberal Democratic Party (2012) Mark R. Mullins Open Access Download PDF	295
41 The Liberal Democratic Party’s Constitutional Reform Promotion Department: Questions and Answers to the Draft Proposal for Revisions to the Constitution of Japan (2013) Christoph Kleine Open Access Download PDF	301
42 Supreme Commander of Allied Powers (SCAP): The Shinto Directive 15 December 1945 Mark R. Mullins Open Access Download PDF	303
43 Yoshihiko Ashizu: The Shinto Directive and Constitution from the Standpoint of a Shintoist (1960) Mark R. Mullins Open Access Download PDF	309
44 Shinshū Ōtani-ha: Resolution Against the ‘Revision’ of the Fundamental Law of Education (2004) and Comment by the Shinshū Ōtani-ha President on the ‘Revision of the Organ Transplant Law’ (2009) Ugo Dessì Open Access Download PDF	312
Inner Asia and the Himalayas
Tibet
45 The Fifth Dalai Lama: The Pearl Rosary: Advice on Combining the Two Traditions (undated, ca. 1645) Matthew W. King Open Access Download PDF	321
46 Doring Tenzin Penjor: The Biography of Doring Paṇḍita (ca. 1806) Franz Xaver Erhard Open Access Download PDF	330
47 Gendun Chopel: Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler (1940/1941) Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz Open Access Download PDF	336
Bhutan
48 Zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel: Sixteen I’s (ca. first half 17th Century) Dagmar Schwerk Open Access Download PDF	343
49 Bhutanese Legal Code from 1729 Dagmar Schwerk Open Access Download PDF	348
Mongolia
50 Qutuγtai Sečen Qung Tayiji, comp.: The White History of the Ten Meritorious Doctrines (16th Century) Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz Open Access Download PDF	363
51 Zava Damdin Lubsangdamdin: Annotations that Clarify the Meaning of Some of the Holy Emperors’ Secret Prophecies (1924) Matthew W. King Open Access Download PDF	367
Buryatia
52 Wangdan Yum čüng: History of the Qori Buryats (1875) Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz Open Access Download PDF	375
List of Figures Open Access Download PDF	379
Global Secularity. A Sourcebook Open Access Download PDF	381

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

April 21, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9783111254081

Hardcover published on:

April 21, 2025

Hardcover ISBN:

9783111217345

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

13

Main content:

377

Illustrations:

3

Coloured Illustrations:

2

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111254081

eBook ISBN: 9783111254081

Hardcover ISBN: 9783111217345

Keywords for this book

Secularism; Global History

Audience(s) for this book

Scholars in secularism and religious science.

Creative Commons

BY 4.0

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Volume III Buddhist Asia

Overview

About this book

Topics

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